{"id":16192,"date":"2026-07-24T23:42:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16192"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:42:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:42:41","slug":"dem-panel-taps-south-carolina-to-hold-first-2028-presidential-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16192","title":{"rendered":"Dem panel taps South Carolina to hold first 2028 presidential primary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/aAJCjBQ9evb1vOYdwlfsfZFIYoA=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/24\/1784910283162.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/12\/07\/south-carolina-democrats-influencers-primary\" target=\"_blank\">South Carolina<\/a> has been preliminarily tapped to hold the first Democratic presidential primary of 2028, as a key panel of party leaders picked the Palmetto State over Nevada on Friday after a contentious, racially fraught debate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> It&#8217;s a coup for Black leaders who argued the party&#8217;s most loyal voters \u2014 represented by South Carolina&#8217;s large Black population \u2014 deserved to have the first chance to weigh in on who should be Democrats&#8217; next presidential nominee.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>The vote by the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s powerful Rules &amp; Bylaws panel has to be ratified by the full DNC. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>The debate exposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/12\/07\/south-carolina-democrats-influencers-primary\" target=\"_blank\">divisions<\/a> across race, ideology and region, pitting Black Democrats against Latino Democrats, progressives against moderates, and Democrats from the South, Southwest and Northeast against one another.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many Latino leaders pushed for Nevada to be the first state to vote, citing that state&#8217;s large number of Latino and working-class voters \u2014 two other groups crucial to Democrats winning elections.<\/li>\n<li>The first state to vote in the primary typically plays an outsized role in determining the presidential nominee \u2014 and is lavished with attention, media coverage and cash.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong> Members of the rules panel said Friday they elevated South Carolina because it&#8217;s a diverse, small state where Democratic contenders can compete without having massive advertising budgets.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But until Friday morning, South Carolina was neck-and-neck with Nevada.<\/li>\n<li>Democrats gathered privately late into the night Thursday to debate which state should lead off the primary. Sources on the rules panel told Axios it would be a close vote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In the hours <\/strong>before the committee gathered publicly this week,<strong> <\/strong>South Carolina Democrats and their allies argued that Black voters would feel betrayed if the state weren&#8217;t picked to vote first. The state led off the 2024 primary season after a push by then-President Biden.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Rev. Al Sharpton, the African American civil rights leader, said publicly that &#8220;to turn around now and push South Carolina to the back of the line would be a slap in the face to the very voters who&#8217;ve kept this party alive.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Christale Spain, chair of South Carolina&#8217;s Democratic Party, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/22\/us\/politics\/south-carolina-nevada-democrats-2028-presidential-calendar.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\" target=\"_blank\">told The New York Times<\/a>: &#8220;If Nevada gets elevated over South Carolina, it would be because of their Latino vote. So you would then be telling Black voters that you matter less than brown voters. And I refuse to believe that our party wants to send any type of message like that.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>Former Vice President Kamala Harris could benefit from the decision to put South Carolina at the top of the calendar.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Harris, who&#8217;s eyeing a third presidential run, is leading the potential 2028 Democratic field among Black voters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s next:<\/strong> Despite getting snubbed by the Democratic panel, New Hampshire \u2014 and perhaps Iowa \u2014 could go rogue and try to hold the party&#8217;s contests.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New Hampshire state law says it must hold the first primary in the country, and some Iowa Democrats have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.notus.org\/2028-election\/iowa-democrats-rogue-2028-caucus\" target=\"_blank\">threatened<\/a> to run an unapproved caucus to maintain that state&#8217;s status early in the calendar..<\/li>\n<li>But Democrats recently put <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmoinesregister.com\/story\/news\/elections\/presidential\/caucus\/2026\/06\/26\/national-democrats-ok-new-penalties-for-states-defying-2028-calendar\/90701221007\/?gnt-cfr=1&amp;gca-cat=p&amp;gca-uir=false&amp;gca-epti=z11xx44p118650l002350c118650u002944e005450v11xx44&amp;gca-ft=256&amp;gca-ds=sophi\" target=\"_blank\">strict rules<\/a> in place to punish state parties that cut in line.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Carolina has been preliminarily tapped to hold the first Democratic presidential primary of 2028, as a key panel of party leaders picked the Palmetto State over Nevada on Friday after a contentious, racially fraught debate. Why it matters: It&#8217;s a coup for Black leaders who argued the party&#8217;s most loyal voters \u2014 represented by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/aAJCjBQ9evb1vOYdwlfsfZFIYoA=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/24\/1784910283162.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}